Document management apparatus and method

Abstract

A document operation unit operates on a plurality of documents in response to a user's operation request. A document relation data acquirement unit acquires relation data among the plurality of documents. The relation data includes an identifier of the user, a date of an operation, a kind of the operation, and a task as an operation purpose. A document relation data memory stores the relation data. An indication unit indicates a task in response to a user's indication request. A document evaluation unit retrieves the relation data including the indicated task from the document relation data memory, and assigns a value to each document based on the retrieved relation data. A document presentation unit presents at least one document having a larger value.

1 . An apparatus for managing documents, comprising: 
 a document memory storing a plurality of documents;    a document operation unit configured to operate on the plurality of documents in response to a user's operation request;    a document relation data acquirement unit configured to acquire relation data among the plurality of documents as operation objects, the relation data including an identifier of the user, a date of an operation, a kind of the operation, and a task as an operation purpose;    a document relation data memory storing the relation data;    an indication unit configured to indicate a task in response to a user's indication request;    a document evaluation unit configured to retrieve the relation data including the indicated task from said document relation data memory, and to assign a value to each of the plurality of documents based on the retrieved relation data; and    a document presentation unit configured to present at least one document having the largest value from among the plurality of documents.    
   
   
       2 . The apparatus according to  claim 1 , 
 wherein said document evaluation unit evaluates the value of each of the plurality of documents for at least one of a creation process and a use process of the operation.    
   
   
       3 . The apparatus according to  claim 2 , 
 further comprising a document relation data summary unit configured to create a summary of the at least one document by referring to said document memory, and    wherein said document presentation unit presents the summary.    
   
   
       4 . The apparatus according to  claim 3 , 
 wherein said document memory stores a document identifier, a creation date of a document, the identifier of the user as a creator, a kind of the document, a title of the document, and contents of the document, and    wherein the relation data further includes a relation identifier, the document identifier of a relation source, and the document identifier of a relation destination.    
   
   
       5 . The apparatus according to  claim 4 , 
 wherein the kind of operation includes a reference, a quotation, a revision, a comment, and a new creation, and    wherein the summary includes the title of the document and the kind of operation.    
   
   
       6 . The apparatus according to  claim 5 , 
 when said indication unit selects the document identifier of a document stored in said document memory in response to the user's selection request,    wherein said document relation data summary unit creates a summary of the document, a summary of a relation source document of the document, and a summary of a relation destination document of the document by referring to said document relation data memory, and    wherein said document presentation unit presents the summary of the document, the summary of the relation source document, and the summary of the relation destination document.    
   
   
       7 . The apparatus according to  claim 5 , wherein, 
 when said indication unit indicates a registration of a document in response to the user's registration request,    said document presentation unit presents a list of documents used by the user, and    said indication unit selects at least one document to be related with the document from the list in response to the user's selection request.    
   
   
       8 . The apparatus according to  claim 5 , 
 wherein said document presentation unit presents a plurality of selection items for document retrieval, the plurality of selection items including predetermined tasks, an evaluation value based on creation process, an evaluation value based on use process, and an evaluation value based on combination of creation process and use process.    
   
   
       9 . The apparatus according to  claim 8 , wherein, 
 when said indication unit selects one task from the predetermined tasks and the evaluation value based on creation process,    said document evaluation unit retrieves document identifiers of relation source corresponding to the one task from said document relation data memory, retrieves documents of the document identifiers from said document memory, and evaluates a value of each of the documents.    
   
   
       10 . The apparatus according to  claim 8 , wherein, 
 when said indication unit selects one task from the predetermined tasks and the evaluation value based on use process,    said document evaluation unit retrieves document identifiers of relation destination corresponding to the one task from said document relation data memory, retrieves documents of the document identifiers from said document memory, and evaluates a value of each of the documents.    
   
   
       11 . The apparatus according to  claim 8 , wherein, 
 when said indication unit selects one task from the predetermined tasks and the evaluation value based on combination of creation process and use process,    said document evaluation unit retrieves document identifiers of relation source and relation destination corresponding to the one task from said document relation data memory, retrieves documents of the document identifiers from said document memory, and evaluates a value of each of the documents.    
   
   
       12 . The apparatus according to  claim 9 ,  10 , or  11 , 
 wherein said document presentation unit presents a predetermined number of the documents in order of the value of each document.    
   
   
       13 . The apparatus according to  claim 12 , 
 wherein said document presentation unit additionally presents other tasks related with the one task, and    wherein, when said indication unit selects one of the other tasks in response to the user's selection request,    said document presentation unit presents a list of documents each of which relation data includes the one of the other tasks.    
   
   
       14 . The apparatus according to  claim 12 , 
 wherein said document presentation unit presents a list of tasks of creation process of the document,    wherein, when said indication unit selects at least one task from the list in response to the user's selection request,    said document presentation unit presents a list of documents in larger order of the value, the documents having document identifiers of relation source corresponding to the at least one task in said document relation data memory.    
   
   
       15 . The apparatus according to  claim 12 , 
 wherein said document presentation unit presents a list of tasks of use process of the document,    wherein, when said indication unit selects at least one task from the list in response to the user's selection request,    said document presentation unit presents a list of documents in larger order of the value, the documents having document identifiers of relation destination corresponding to the at least one task in said document relation data memory.    
   
   
       16 . The apparatus according to  claim 9 , 
 wherein said document evaluation unit recursively calculates a value of a document by referring to a value of a relation source document used for creating the document.    
   
   
       17 . The apparatus according to  claim 10 , 
 wherein said document evaluation unit recursively calculates a value of a document by referring to a value of a relation destination document created using the document.    
   
   
       18 . The apparatus according to  claim 11 , 
 wherein said document evaluation unit recursively calculates a value of a document by referring to a value of a relation source document used for creating the document and a value of a relation destination document created using the document.    
   
   
       19 . A method for managing documents, comprising: 
 operating on a plurality of documents in response to a user's operation request;    acquiring relation data among the plurality of documents as operation objects, the relation data including an identifier of the user, a date of an operation, a kind of the operation, and a task as an operation purpose;    storing the relation data in a document relation data memory;    indicating a task in response to a user's indication request;    retrieving the relation data including the indicated task from the document relation data memory;    assigning a value to each of the plurality of documents based on the retrieved relation data; and    presenting at least one document having the largest value from among the plurality of documents.    
   
   
       20 . A computer program product, comprising: 
 a computer readable program code embodied in said product for causing a computer to manage documents, said computer readable program code comprising:    a first program code to operate on a plurality of documents in response to a user's operation request;    a second program code to acquire relation data among the plurality of documents as operation objects, the relation data including an identifier of the user, a date of an operation, a kind of the operation, and a task as an operation purpose;    a third program code to store the relation data in a document relation data memory;    a fourth program code to indicate a task in response to a user's indication request;    a fifth program code to retrieve the relation data including the indicated task from the document relation data memory;    a sixth program code to assign a value to each of the plurality of documents based on the retrieved relation data; and    a seventh program code to present at least one document having the largest value from among the plurality of documents.